Orange may try again on redistricting

New version looks at N'burgh

GOSHEN — Orange County lawmakers may take another run at adopting new lines for their 21 districts in time for this year's elections by salvaging a redistricting plan that appeared dead after a 10-10 Legislature vote on it this month.

GOSHEN — Orange County lawmakers may take another run at adopting new lines for their 21 districts in time for this year's elections by salvaging a redistricting plan that appeared dead after a 10-10 Legislature vote on it this month.

The county Planning Department has drafted a new version of the proposed political map that tries to answer concerns about how the City of Newburgh is divided and its effect on minority representation.

The composition of the two Newburgh districts was the main objection audience members raised on April 5, when the Republican-drawn proposal came up one vote short.

Four legislators met Wednesday with Planning Commissioner David Church and a planner to see the proposed revision, which is expected to be presented to lawmakers next week at a meeting of the Rules, Enactments and Intergovernmental Relations Committee.

Democratic Leader Jeff Berkman, who participated in that meeting, said he and fellow Democrat Mike Paduch initiated the new changes by approaching the Planning Department after the plan's defeat to see if it could be amended to address the public concerns.

"Part of what I should do as a legislator is not give up and keep working on it," Berkman said. "That's what I've done."

An added inducement for legislators to adopt a revised plan as soon as possible is the recent discovery that the Legislature can't automatically hold a second round of elections next year with new district lines, as previously thought. It turns out that doing so would require voter approval in a referendum, since it would mean shortening legislators' four-year terms.

Legislature Chairman Michael Pillmeier, who drafted the original proposal with one other Republican legislator and no public input, hasn't returned calls to discuss what, if anything, he planned to do next with redistricting. According to Berkman, Pillmeier called Wednesday's meeting about the new map revisions and attended it, along with Berkman, Paduch and Katie Bonelli, the Republican who helped devise the first proposal.

A key legal question, still unresolved, is whether the Legislature still has time to change the lines for this year's elections. Failing to do would open the county to federal lawsuits because of widely varying populations in its current districts, which were drawn in 2005 based on 2000 census figures.